Life, hierarchy, and the thermodynamic machinery of planet Earth

Throughout Earth's history, life has increased greatly in abundance, complexity, and diversity. At the same time, it has substantially altered the Earth's environment, evolving some of its variables to states further and further away from thermodynamic equilibrium. For instance, concentrations in atmospheric oxygen have increased throughout Earth's history, resulting in an increased chemical disequilibrium in the atmosphere as well as an increased redox gradient between the atmosphere and the Earth's reducing crust. These trends seem to contradict the second law of thermodynamics, which states for isolated systems that gradients and free energy are dissipated over time, resulting in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. This seeming contradiction is resolved by considering planet Earth as a coupled, hierarchical and evolving non-equilibrium thermodynamic system that has been substantially altered by the input of free energy generated by photosynthetic life. Here, I present this hierarchical thermodynamic theory of the Earth system. I first present simple considerations to show that thermodynamic variables are driven away from a state of thermodynamic equilibrium by the transfer of power from some other process and that the resulting state of disequilibrium reflects the past net work done on the variable. This is applied to the processes of planet Earth to characterize the generation and transfer of free energy and its dissipation, from radiative gradients to temperature and chemical potential gradients that result in chemical, kinetic, and potential free energy and associated dynamics of the climate system and geochemical cycles. The maximization of power transfer among the processes within this hierarchy yields thermodynamic efficiencies much lower than the Carnot efficiency of equilibrium thermodynamics and is closely related to the proposed principle of Maximum Entropy Production (MEP). The role of life is then discussed as a photochemical process that generates substantial amounts of chemical free energy which essentially skips the limitations and inefficiencies associated with the transfer of power within the thermodynamic hierarchy of the planet. This perspective allows us to view life as being the means to transform many aspects of planet Earth to states even further away from thermodynamic equilibrium than is possible by purely abiotic means. In this perspective pockets of low-entropy life emerge from the overall trend of the Earth system to increase the entropy of the universe at the fastest possible rate. The implications of the theory are discussed regarding fundamental deficiencies in Earth system modeling, applications of the theory to reconstructions of Earth system history, and regarding the role of human activity for the future of the planet.     

Exact expressions for the precession of a planet and the deflection of light

Exact expressions for the precession of a planet's orbit and for the deflection of light near a massive object are presented.     

Dark matter bodies in star and planet structures

The lowest frequency of the dipole f mode (surface gravity wave) of the Sun and some other stars is shown to be close to the orbital frequency of a trial body near the star surface, as well as the wave amplitude is shown to be resonantly increased to the values large enough to be observed. Therefore the Sun is considered to be a sensitive detector for hypothetical compact cosmic bodies made of dark matter particles. In this connection some possible characteristics of the dark matter bodies (DMB) are discussed, and DMB orbits in the Sun are calculated within a standard solar model in order to compare the wave amplitudes with data for the solar surface oscillations, and to estimate the masses and radii of the DMB. As well, some possible phenomena in star and planet structures are discussed with special attention on generation of flares of high X-ray classes, specific behavior of the Moon dust, formation of short-time vertical flows in deserts, oceans, and atmospheres on the Earth and other planets.     

在有心力场中行星运行轨道稳定性的证明

从粒子的基本运动方程出发,利用非线性动力学的方法证明了行星在有心力场中运行轨道的稳定性,得到结论:粒子在有心力F=-k2m2r-n的作用下运行时,轨道稳定的条件是n<3.     

Energy and entropy balance for a black piecewise homogeneous planet

Summary In this paper we present a crude model for a planet interacting with the solar radiation, our aim being the discussion of the global energy balance and corresponding entropy production. We find that the power of the surface energy circulation and the temperature excursion have a peculiar nonlinear behaviour as a function of the parameters representing the specific heat of each piece and the thermal conductivity of their boundaries.

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Riassunto In questo lavoro si studia il bilancio di energia e di entropia per un pianeta in interazione con la radiazione solare partendo da una descrizione della struttura fisica della superficie del pianeta estremamente semplificata. Si trova che l’escursione termica nel regime stazionario e la potenza dell’energia termica circolante in superficie hanno un comportamento non lineare in funzione dei parametri che esprimono l’inerzia termica delle varie parti di cui la superficie del pianeta è composta e la condutttività termica lungo le linee di separazione fra queste parti.

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Резюме В этой работе мы предлагаем грубую модель для описания взаимодействия планеты с солнечной радиацией. Наща цель—обсудить глобальный знергетический баланс и соответствующее образование энтропии. Мы получаем, что мощность циркульции повепхностной энепгии и температурный сдвиг имеют специфическое нелинейное поведение, как функции параметров, представляющих удельную теплоемкость каждого куска и удельную теплопроводность поверхностей раздела.

     

Infrared sensors in spacecraft that monitor planet Earth

Infrared sensors provide a backbone for many of the instruments flown by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that monitor conditions on planet Earth. This paper gives an overview of some of those missions and infrared sensors used in the spacecraft instruments. Basic properties of the sensors are described and the evolution of sensor complexity is presented by example. Future trends pointing towards more sophisticated sensors in the future are discussed.     

圆锥曲线轨道上行星运动时间计算

从行星绕日运动的面积速度守恒出发,通过计算行星位矢的掠面面积,得到轨道上任意两点的运动时间及椭圆轨道上的周期.     

行星绕日运动时间的简便计算方法

通过掠面速度公式简洁地导出了行星沿椭圆轨道运动的时间表示式,分析了<大学物理>2007年第12期中<椭圆轨道上行星绕日运动时间计算>一文中存在的一个问题.     

Resonant capture of multiple planet systems under dissipation and stable orbital configurations

Migration of planetary systems caused by the action of dissipative forces may lead the planets to be trapped in a resonance. In this work we study the conditions and the dynamics of such resonant trapping. Particularly, we are interested in finding out whether resonant capture ends up in a long-term stable planetary configuration. For two planet systems we associate the evolution of migration with the existence of families of periodic orbits in the phase space of the three-body problem. The family of circular periodic orbits exhibits a gap at the 2:1 resonance and an instability and bifurcation at the 3:1 resonance. These properties explain the high probability of 2:1 and 3:1 resonant capture at low eccentricities. Furthermore, we study the resonant capture of three-planet systems. We show that such a resonant capture is possible and can occur under particular conditions. Then, from the migration path of the system, stable three-planet configurations, either symmetric or asymmetric, can be determined.     

Infrared detection of a planet next to a bright star

Humans have always dreamt about the possibility of existence of planets in solar systems other than our own. After flying by, dropping probes, and even landing devices on most planets within our own solar system, the search for extra-solar planet is included in every proposal to either build a larger and better earth-, space-, or moon-based telescope, or observatory facility. The preliminary analysis seems to indicate that wavelength band from 25 μm to 30 μm is most promising in solving this problem. A number of IR technological challenges are to be overcome before the actual detection system can even be considered in a detailed design. The significant technical challenges of finding a planet will be described. Then details are given on the feasibility of detecting a planet with an instrument concept designed specifically for this purpose, a space-based, rotating rotationally shearing interferometer.     

椭圆轨道上行星绕日运动时间计算

通过分析行星在椭圆轨道上的绕日运动,得到任意两点间的运动时间和运动周期.     

最具潜力的新型"奇迹材料"——石墨烯

2009年4月29日据物理世界网报道,意大利的科研人员成功地用石墨烯制造了首枚包含两个晶体管的集成电路(见封面主图),它拥有简单的计算能力,标制着碳基电子学时代的到来.这枚只有两个晶体管的集成电路虽然很小,却是向制造碳基高性能电子器件迈出的重要一步.     

Tectonic motion characteristics of the Earth planet: from 80 MaBP up to now

Copyright by Science in China Press 2004 1 Introduction The theory of plate tectonics dictates that the Earths surface is made up of a rela-tively small number of rigid spherical shells or plates of the lithosphere that move with respect to each other. At present, the absolute motions of plates are described relative to hotspots mainly[1]. However, there are some deficiencies as follows[2,3]: ①the hotspot data are strictly inaccurate; ②the hotspots possibly move with respect to each other…